Venture Capital

Originally posted on Marathon. We frequently encounter the following train of thought by founders: “I’m raising a seed round of one million. I haven’t found my lead investor yet, but we are close to having {Sequoia} to join the round with a small amount, say, a hundred thousand or even half of it. I don’t …

Originally posted in Marathon Venture Capital We are pleased to announce the completion of Marathon’s second closing. Equifund and the European Investment Fund are now part of our mission, alongside a number of new backers including National Bank of Greece. Leveraging our enthusiastic reception by entrepreneurs from around the world, we aim to make good …

Originally posted on Marathon Venture Capital Venture Capital is a business where you reach out to a hundred people to get one’s commitment. Then a hundred people reach out to you, and it is your turn to pick the right one while knowing that it will take ten proper shots to truly make it. Still, …

Originally posted on Marathon Venture Capital. We are launching Marathon Venture Capital with the goal of fostering innovation coming out of the worldwide Greek network of entrepreneurs and technologists. On Friday March 17th, we presented our team, goals and ambitions for the new vehicle. If you missed our live presentation you can read here everything …

Originally posted in Openfund. A short six years ago, a peer from our small startup community reached out to share an idea he had written down on a piece of paper. The idea was simple; there is a number of available taxis around you, you should be able to see them and pick the one …

Originally posted in Openfund. Openfund started in 2009 to become the first startup investor in Greece and the broader region. Our first, €500k syndicate proved quite successful, giving birth to companies like Taxibeat. Jeremie Openfund II was launched in December 2012 with €15m under management to take this track record to the next level. Three …

A deck of slides and a spreadsheet are usually sufficient to raise a seed round. The deck has received a lot of attention; there is a great variety of quality resources out there on how to go after it. Here, I’ll focus on the spreadsheet, which has mostly gone unnoticed. This is an attempt to …

Presenting in front of people is hard. Being an entrepreneur and making your idea look simple is also genuinely difficult. Here is a rough structure that may help when presenting to potential users and partners or the general public. – Maria (photo) is a (…) and spends (time/money) doing (…). {problem — it is important …

The public discourse in startup land has recently focused on the value add an investor can bring to the table. Value add indeed does make a difference; at the same time though, we tend to neglect the original value an early stage investor contributes to a company. This post is an attempt to bring the …